Cowen's hoarse performance during an interview on the state broadcaster prompted a flurry of comment on Twitter, including a broadside from one opposition politician that he sounded "halfway between drunk and hungover."
Asked whether he was still feeling the effects of the night before Cowen told reporters: "Absolutely not, that's ridiculous." A colleague said he suffered from nasal congestion.
But the negative Internet comment overshadowed the second day of a meeting designed to shore up support for a prime minister whose popularity ratings are on the floor and whose parliamentary majority is wafer-thin.
Renowned for his gruff public persona, Cowen traditionally lets his hair down at the annual conference with songs and pints of beer. On Monday night he regaled reporters and colleagues with a skit in the conference venue's bar.
He has previously denied that he has a drink problem.
"Everyone is human and we all have frailties. Brian Cowen has a difficulty in relation to nasal congestion; I think that is well known and there are times when that does affect him," Justice Minister Dermot Ahern told Newstalk radio.
Headlines about being drunk or hungover are the last thing Cowen needs as he seeks to convince international investors Ireland is not on the verge of a debt crisis and prepares to push through Ireland's fourth austerity budget in December.
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said Cowen was entitled to socialise and brushed off suggestions that the prime minister should have left the bar before the early hours of Tuesday morning.
"I'm not going to start being a babysitter for the Taoiseach (prime minister). The Taoiseach is a big boy, he's well able to be able to handle himself," Dempsey told reporters.
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